Urinal screen



Feb. 23, 1965 CLARK 3,170,169

URINAL scm-:En

Filed June 5. 1962 v BY f United States Patent O FCe 3,170,169 URINAL SCREEN Louis Clark, Los Angeles, Calif., assignor to Clark Paper Converting Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California Filed June 5, 1962, Ser. No. 200,165 8 Claims. (Cl. 4-109) This invention relates to perforate screen fo-r use as a strainer over the drain of a urinal to prevent cigarette butts, paper or other foreign objects from proceeding into the urinal drain. In particular this invention relates to such a urinal screen which may be easily removed from the urinal by use of a specially provided tool and the cigarette butts, paper or other foreign objects are retained on the urinal screen during such removal. Y

In the past, numerous types of urinal screens or strai-n-V ers have been used to prevent trash, such as cigarette butts and paper, which has been discarded in the urinal from passing into the drain line of the urinal. I-f this trashwere permitted to pass into the drain, the drain would become clogged thereby requiring expensive and periodic maintenance. Although numerous heretofore avail-able urinal screens have been found completely adequate for preventing trash from entering into the urinal drain, these screens have been found to be inadequate in other respects.

Since cigarette butts, paper or other foreign objects are retained upon or around (depending on the type of screen used) the conventional urinal screen, this trash will accumulate over a period of time. As a result, periodic maintenance mnst be performed for removing this accumulated trash for sanitary reasons and -for proper functioning of the screen'. In the past it has been conventional to remove this trash from `on or around the screen by |manually removing each piece of trash. This method of trash removal may be personally objectionable to the person performing the maintenance or at least considered unsanitary. Moreover, this method may not beentirely effective in that certain types of trash such as cigarette butts will fall apart when pickedup and therefore the trash will not be completely removed.

Various types of at'wire urinal screens have been used' whichretain the trash on top of the screen land the screen. may be removed lfor disposing of the trash. However, it h-as oftenbeen found that dueto the configuration of the urinal and/ or the manipulation ofthe screenwhich is necessary to remove same from the urinal results in someor all of the trash beingdumped; 50

from the' screen intothe urinal.V As a result the trash may become lodged in the urinaldrain thereby defeating the exact function of the screen. ,3. t

Accordingly it is a 'principalobject of `this invention to provide anovel form of urinal screen adapted to catch and retaintrash thereon'and which-may be `easily re, movedfro'm the urinalwithout dislodging the trash fromthe screen.

Another objecto-f this invention is to provide anovel form of 'flexibleurinal screen and. 'a noveltool for flexing such screen toa positionwhich retains the trash on the screen for removing the screen and trash fromy the urinal by means of suchtooll A more lspecific object "of this 'invention is to provide j a flexible urinal 'screen that has apertured tabs thereon which may be engaged by hooksprovided on a speci-al ltool for lifting and removing the screen from the urinal.

A more `speciis of this invention is toy provide a flexible urinal screen that has apertured tabs thereon which may 'l i be engaged by hooks provided on a special tool for lifting and removing the screen from the urinal. Other andmore detailed objects and advantages of this 3,170,169 Patented Feb. 23, 1 965 FIGURE 3 is a sectional plan view taken substantial-ly on theV line 3-`-3 as shown in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view illustrating the urina. screen of this invention as it is removed from the urinal by use of the specially provided tool of this invention.

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the tool for removing the urinal screen from the urinal. y

` Referring now to the drawings, the urinal screen, generally designated 10, of this invention is shown as beingV positioned in a stall type urinal 11 although it is to be understood and will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that urinal screen 10 may be used in pedestal, oval wall, square wall, trough, or other type urinals.

The urinal 11 is typical of various types of urin-als in that a drain line 12 isrprovided in the lower most portion of the urinal and the bottom 13 and lower portions of 14 of the sides of the urinal are tapered downwardly toward the drain 12. This configuration of the lower portion of the urinal 11 is to provide adequate drainage olf the urinal. A metal screenv15 may be provided and permanently in` stalled over the drain 12..

- The urinal screen 10 is relatively flat and includes a perforate central portion 16 for permitting liquid to pass through the screen and to prevent any trash from entering drain 12. The urinal screen 10 has a peripheral portion 17 forV sealably engaging the contoured bottom por-V tion of the urinal 11.

' The urinal screen 10 may b e comprised of any Couvenient material which is relatively flexible and imperviousA to liquids. It is desirable that the material used for urinal screen 10 be Vcapable of resisting the effects of acids,` caustics, cleaning compounds, and the chemicals used in Vinyl plastic has -been found to Vbe highly satisfactory although other less expensive materials maydeodorants.

be used which economically would permit periodic disposal -of the urinal screen. In theV drawings, the urinal' screen 10 is illustrated as being comprised of a molded provides the desired amount of rigidity for the screen while the peripheral portion 17 is highly flexible inorder to properly engage the bottom portion of the urinal.

- Means are provided on the urinal screen 10 forus'e` in removing the screen from the urinal, and asL show-n in the. drawings these means may include arpair of tabs? 19 and 20"projecting`from one Iside ofthe urinal screen.Al

'l`-abs"19`and20 arefspaced across .the perforate portion'l i 16'fron1 each other and are Vpreferably relatively 'near-orv on the peripheral portion 17. The tabs 19 vand 20 each? have .anfaperture 21 therethrough.

Means are provided for engaging .the urinallscreen-10` to' remove the screen from the `urinal 11 and las shown rinL the drawings,'. these means may comprise theremoval'A tool generallydesignatedZZ.. The tool 22 has a Handle: portion 23 and a pair of end portions 2'4iand-25.' 'The-V end portions 24 and 25 are adapted to be inserted through apertures 21 in the -tabs 19 and 20. End portions 24 and V25 are spaced closer together than the spacing between tabs 19 and 20 so that when each end portion engages the tabs, the urinal screen 10 is urged into a trough-5 shaped configuration as shown in FIGURE 4. Forming the urinal screen into this troughshaped configuration serves to urge the trash, generally designated 26, toward the center of the perforate portion 16 and retained the trash on the screen while the screen is being removed from the urinal. The end portions 24 and 25 of the removal tool 22 are preferably hookshaped so that the end portions will not become inadvertently dislodged from the tabs 19 and 2t) during removal or replacement of the urinal screen. Although the drawings illustrate the removal tool 22 as being constructed of a formed wire, it is to be understood that other materials or configurations may be used which will provide end portions such as 24 and 25 that are spaced closer together than the tabs 19 and of the particular urinal screen to be removed and that are adapted to engage the tabs.

Since end portions 24 and 25 are spaced closer together than tabs 19 and 20, the actual engagement of these ends with the tabs is accomplished by inserting one end portion into the aperture in one tab, such as 20, lifting that tab to flex the urinal screen into a trough shape and engaging the other end portion of the removal tool in the aperture in the other tab 19. The urinal screen may then be lifted out of the urinal and the trash dumped oif of the upper surface of the screen 10. Replacement of the urinal screen is accomplished by performing the above steps in reverse order.

Thus it may be seen that this invention provides a urinal screen that may be removed with a special tool, that it is unnecessary for a person to touch the screen during removal or replacement, and that the trash present on the screen is not dislodged during removal of the screen. Having fully described my invention, it is to be understood that I do not wish to be limited to the details herein set forth or to the details illustrated in the drawings, but my invention is of the full scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A removable urinal screen comprising a tiexible at body having a perforate portion, a pair of upwardly projecting tabs on one side of said body, said tabs being spaced across said bodyv from each other a distance equal to a substantial portion of the distance across said body in that direction for lifting said body by said pair of tabs and causing said body to flex and form a trough for retainingobjects present on said body.

2. A removable urinal screen comprising a ilexible flat body having a perforate portion, said body having a pair of apertures, each said aperture being spaced across said body from the other said aperture a distance equal to a substantial portion of the distance across said body in that direction, and means having end portions for inserting through and engaging each of said apertures for removing said body from the urinal, said end portions being spaced closer together than said pair of apertures.

3.-A removable urinal screen comprising a relatively at and flexible body having a perforate central portion, said body having a peripheral portion for engaging the contour of the urinal, said body having a pair of apertures, each said aperture being positioned near said peripheral portion and spaced across said body from the other aperture a distance equal to a substantial portion of the total distance, across said body in that direction, and means for removing said screen from the urinal, said m'eans having a pair of end portions for inserting through and engaging each of said apertures, said 6 end portions being spaced closer together than the spacing of said `apertures for causing the said body to be flexed to a'trough shape.

4. A removable urinal screen comprising a flexible flat body having a perforate portion, a pair of upwardly projecting tabs on one side of said body, said tabs being spaced across from said body from each other a distance equal to a substantial portion of the total distance across said body in that direction, said tabs having apertures therethrough, and means having end portions for inserting through each of said apertures and engaging said tabs to remove said body from the urinal, said end portions being spaced closer together than said pair of tabs.

5. A removable urinal screen comprising a relatively flat and flexible body having a perforate central portion, said body having a peripheral portion for engaging the contour of the urinal, a pair of upwardly projecting tabs on one side of said body, said tabs being spaced'across said `body from each other a distance equal to a substantial portion of the total distance across said body in that direction and positioned near said peripheral portion, each of said tabs having an aperture therethrough, and means having end portions for inserting through each of said apertures and engaging said tabs to remove said body from the urinal, said end portions being spaced closer together than said pair of tabs.

6. A removable urinal screen comprising a relatively iat and iiexible body having a perforate central portion, said body having a peripheral portion for engaging the contour of the urinal and a frame portion encircling said central portion between said peripheral portion and said central portion, said peripheral portion being thinner and more flexible than saidframe portion, a pair of upwardly projecting tabs on one side of said body, said tabs being spaced across said body from each other a distance equal to a substantial portion of the total distance across said vbody in that direction and positioned near said peripheral portion, each of said tabs having an aperture therethrough, and means having end portions for inserting through each of said apertures and engaging said tabs to remove said body from the urinal, said endvportions being spaced closer together than said pair of tabs.

7. A removable urinal screen comprising a flexible at body having a perforate portion, said body having a pair of apertures, each said aperture being spaced across said body from the other said aperture a distance equal to a substantial portion of the total distance across said body in that direction, and means for removably inserting in said apertures for lifting of said body by said means and causing the body to form a trough for retaining objects on the body during lifting.

8. A removable urinal screen comprising a ilexible flat body having a perforate portion, said body having a plurality of apertures, at least one of said apertures spaced across said body from at leastl another of said apertures a distance equal to a substantial portion of the total distance across said body in that direction, and means for inserting through and engaging at least said spaced apertures for lifting of said body through the engagement of said means with said apertures and for causing said body to flex and form a trough for retaining objects present` on said body.

References Citedin the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. A REMOVABLE URINAL SCREEN COMPRISING A FLEXIBLE FLAT BODY HAVING A PERFORATE PORTION, A PAIR OF UPWARDLY PROJECTING TABS ON ONE SIDE OF SAID BODY, SAID TABS BEING SPACED ACROSS SAID BODY FROM EACH OTHER A DISTANCE EQUAL TO A SUBSTANTIAL PORTION OF THE DISTANCE ACROSS SAID BODY IN THAT DIRECTION FOR LIFTING SAID BODY BY SAID PAIR OF TABS AND CAUSING SAID BODY TO FLEX AND FORM A TROUGH FOR RETAINING OBJECTS PRESENT ON SAID BODY. 